At the Lathe: How to Pursue an Ideal Form

Once I complimented a student new to turning on the pleasing shape of her very first bowl, which she was working on. She burst out laughing and exclaimed, “I’m not in charge of that!” When you’re just getting started, simply making clean cuts and avoiding kickback or other disasters may seem like more than you can hope for. If you have made only a few bowls, you may not have given much thought to the more abstract aspects of design. But as you begin to acquire more control of the process, you will start thinking about how to make the next bowl a better one. That’s a big part of what I mean here by design. It’s deciding or recognizing what you like; what kind of materials, shapes, proportions, details, etc. you prefer or are interested in exploring.